Affect or Effect

You affect something and the result is the effect.

Advertising affects the psyche of American teens. The effect is that they are lazy, but stylish.

To further confuse the issue ...
Sometimes "effect" can be used as a "verb." But the verb "effect" means "bring about," and the verb "affect" generally means "change" or "influence."

There are cases where "affect" can be used as a noun (for example, the "bluntness of affect"), but unless you're writing or editing psychology papers, they're pretty rare.

Effect/affect

What's the old line? Special effects in moives bring about special affects in people.

to affect and to effect

For them as verbs try this:

you effect a change and are affected by it

I do it even easier. A comes before E. You are AFFECTED by bad egg salad, and the EFFECT is an afternoon in the bathroom.

Cathy C said:

I do it even easier. A comes before E. You are AFFECTED by bad egg salad, and the EFFECT is an afternoon in the bathroom.

Click to expand...

I didn't have trouble telling the two of them apart before...but thanks to that phrase, I'll never EVER start to have a problem. That's brilliant.

Thanks Cathy, however that confuses me and i already know the difference. With words like affect/effect, i think you are just gonna have to know it. (Memorize it to the point that it is second nature.)